


Like The Angel

by hmeihmeh



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7067179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmeihmeh/pseuds/hmeihmeh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started in December, when Nico di Angelo spilled his long kept secret to Will. It was a secret that tore them apart and left them, and their makeshift family, in pieces. It was a secret that Nico hadn't told anybody, because he knew that if he did there would be dire consequences. But maybe if he had there would have been more time. Because when you have a terminal illness then time was of the essence. But there was no cure for cancer after all, was there?<br/>Solangelo angst <br/>Title by Rise Against<br/>(Updated/sortaedited) </p>
<p>-hmeihmeh</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like The Angel

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Rick Riordan. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The lyrics used are created and owned by Rise Against song writers Brandon Barnes, Joseph Principe, Timothy Mcilrath, Todd Moheny. Lyrics to Like The Angel provided by LyricFind. Published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

THANK YOU

 

Like The Angel  
-Rise Against

 

Nico told him in December, Christmas day, on the balcony overlooking Italy, just as the sun was setting. Dark red and gold and orange. Pulled him aside from the general antics of their friends across the hall, their after in the air, drifting across the corridor. It was the first time in a long time he had seen Nico cry. Nico told their friends the next week, just as they stepped back into New York city. The airport cool and quiet edcept the sounds of a distant crowd that just reached their ears. He told his darkest secret that year for the first time. It was like a dream, Will would tell those who asked, but the diagnosis was unmistakably clear. And there was no cure for cancer.

The seas part when they hit the floor,  
The voices carry on and out the door  
And everything you touch turns into gold  
-Rise Against

Will picked up the phone and called his father again for the first time in months, on the verge of insanity, begging for help. Will had long avoided his father and distanced himself as far away as possible. He couldn't rely on Apollo to get him anywhere, he couldn't rely on his father if he was going to achieve anything. Will had planned to work hard and pay the bills with his part time job, push himself through medical school and labour for his dream. But now he needed a degree now, he needed the money, the research, the connections...but it hurt, it burned and weighed him down, because he had given up on his life goal. He had lost the fight and went crying to his father, because Will Solace wasn't strong enough to pave his own way in life. He would always fall. There was so much humiliation in it, and pain and anger, and general hate in the way his life was turning out. Because not even Will Solace's general optimism could paint life as a pretty picture now. And sometimes, in the quiet stills in life, when he paused for a moment in the dead of the night he wondered if it was worth it, if Nico di Angelo, the boy he thought he had loved, was worth it. Because he just didn't know anymore. 

 

Like the angel you are you laugh creating  
A lightness in my chest,  
Your eyes they penetrate me,  
(your answer's always 'maybe')  
That's when I got up and left  
-Rise Against

 

Nico and Will had the big fight in February. The pent up animosity spilt out and it left Will out the door and Nico slamming it behind him. Nico had watched Will from the window as he left, shoved his half-open suitcase into the trunk of his car and dissapeared down the street. And he realized then that there was nothing left at all. It was then that they truly acknowledged that it had all fallen to pieces and there was nothing left to salvage. It was too much, and Nico wished that he had kept his mouth sealed that December night in Venice.

 

A beating heart and a microphone  
A ticking clock in an empty home  
Still tells of these times so long ago  
-Rise Against

Will discovered Nico was gone a week later when he stumbled back home, slightly intoxicated and regretful, with an apology on the tip of his tongue and tears brimming in his eyes. Their little place had been cleaned and there was nothing left of what they used to have. The only thing that had been left untouched was Will’s study where all of his medical research lay, never to be touched. In the bedroom his clothes lay scattered, where they had been torn out of the closet. The drawers tipped, pictures missing and frames broken on the floor. The only thing left was the clock that blinked 12:32 like a taunt. There was nothing left here, not for him anyways, just the whispering echo of Nico in the empty house that used to be so full of life.

 

Even though I've come so far,  
I know I've got so far to go  
And any day now I'll explode  
-Rise Against

Will dropped out of college in March to study full time in his father’s house where he had complete access to the library, labs and other professionals. He spent hours laboring in silence. He buried himself in work, because if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be anything left for him. He tried to forget Nico, pushed him to the back of his mind. Ignore, ignore, ignore. But there were too many memories surging and pushing forward. He didn't know how he was still functioning, but he was just a ticking time bomb. Set and ready. 

 

Like the angel you are you laugh creating  
A lightness in my chest,  
Your eyes they penetrate me,  
(your answer's always 'maybe')  
That's when I got up and left  
-Rise Against

Nico came back in September. He returned home, 7 months later, exactly the same, as though he hadn't been gone a day. He simply slid into their booth in the corner, where they always sat. Just at noon when they would meet up. And he just sat there, like he used to. In the early years of their friendship, when Nico still gazed at Percy longer than he should have and looked through Will, he would often disappear for a few weeks and months at a time. And every time he came back he would just show up and pretend like nothing had happened. And the day he came back it was the same. Their friends avoided staring to long and the laughter was hesitant and the smiles slow. But it was somehow different, when Will watched Nico carefully, (years of being friends and living together making him almost perfectly tune with him). Nico's hands shook lightly, his eyes were darker and a sad. He glanced at Will but never made eye contact. He didn't smile as often and laughed quieter. But the world gained some colour, and just like always they talked and smiled and for a moment they could pretend that nothing had ever happened. Just as they were leaving Nico told them quietly, head bowed and eyes closed, that he had wanted to see them, talk to them one last time before he died. And he told them then that there was no chance he would be living through the winter unless there was some sudden cure. There was no way that Nico would survive. They took it in silence, because there seemed no other way to take it. Until Nico spoke up and pulled Will aside from their friends and told him. Told him he was sorry, that he didn’t want their last moments to be a fight, that if he could take back that night he would, and Will wasn't quite sure if he was talking about that night in Venice or the night he left. Over and over again he apologized. I'm sorry, Will, I'm so, so, sorry. And then he was gone again. And only weeks later did it strike him that Will never got a chance to say goodbye, or that he would see him again. It was then that Will wondered why he had ever doubted for a second that he loved him and he wished he could say it one more time and heat it once more.

 

And each and everyday will lead into tomorrow  
tomorrow brings one less day without you  
But don't wait up just leave the light on  
'Cause all the roads that I might take  
will all one day lead back to you  
-Rise Against

Will found the cure a little after December, Christmas Eve. After that September afternoon there was no taking Will away from his work. He was completely engrossed, fueled by desperation, and hope, and a frail, beautiful kind of love. The cure was his last chance, a glimmer of hope that seemed too good to be true. He typed it up, went over the method once more before rushing outside. Maybe if he had his phone on he would have picked up Nico’s last call, his lovers weak voice whispering to him, granting his last wish with an "I love you, sunshine". And maybe if he had brought his mobile with him that night he would have seen the message from the hospital from three days ago. That they were sorry to inform him but Nico di Angelo had passed away that night. The night before Christmas, the night before everything started. Maybe if he hadn’t forgotten his phone he wouldn’t have rushed to the hospital, the procedure ready. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten there and realized it was too late. And maybe he wouldn't have hoped, and dreamed. Because we all know love can hurt you more than anything else. But after all there was no cure for a heart broken by an angel.

And like the angel you are you laugh creating  
A lightness in my chest,  
Your eyes they penetrate me,  
(never cease to amaze me)  
That's when I got up and left  
-Rise Against

(Mini epilogue)  
And sometimes you'll see him on television, the man who found the cure to cancer. And he'll smile and wave, and they're genuine smiles. A smile that makes you want to grin back, because humanity did it. And you know that this man listened to the sobbing thank yous of people who thought they had lost. And this man had walked in hospitals and told people it was okay. And people knew his name, and you think he must be so proud and so happy. But sometimes his smile was broken and sad, and he wouldn't try to cover it up. When interviewers would ask him why, what inspired him he would only say that because he was young and in love and heartbroken.

And like the angel you are you laugh creating  
A lightness in my chest,  
Your eyes they penetrate me,  
(never cease to amaze me)  
That's when I got up and left  
-Rise Against

\Thank you for reading my first fanfiction post ever in my entire life.  
Sorry if it was terrible, and for the spelling errors or the grammar errors, but hey,  
"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit"  
-Bach

And check out Rise Against! They're an amazing band!


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